Terror in the night! or at least worry.

 

How Many Nights
by Galway Kinnell

How many nights
have I lain in terror,
O Creator Spirit, maker of night and day,

only to walk out
the next morning over the frozen world,
hearing under the creaking snow
faint, peaceful breaths...
snake,
bear, earthworm, ant...

and above me
a wild crow crying 'yaw, yaw, yaw'
from a branch nothing cried from ever in my life.

 

     Reading this poem it struck me how different things look at night compared to how they look in daylight.  Insomnia is a not much of a problem for me. (Martin Luther said that insomnia is an opportunity for intercessory prayer.) However, I am awake enough at night to know that issues which may seem insurmountable at night fade to insignificance with the breaking of day. It reminds me of the story of an elderly women who said to her pastor "I've had many problems in my life and most of them never happened."

     What will winter bring to my life in The Little House on the Prairie?  It's a snug little house, and though I don't like cold, I'll test the Norwegian saying "there's no bad weather, only bad clothing."  It isn't as if I haven't experienced cold before. Traveling to Thailand doesn't look feasible and I will miss that as I will miss teaching at Noble Academy. Those are small sacrifices compared to what so many people are suffering.

     Sleep well my friends and if night time finds you awake remember what Luther said.

Takk for alt,

Al

PS Also remember what President Lincoln said: "Don't believe everything you see on the internet."